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View Full Version : Is Faking Your Referrer Kosher?



the goat
09-10-2008, 05:06 AM
I heard about this plugin for firefox called RefControl that allows you to customize your referral URL so that every website you visit thinks you came from your own.

I guess there is a school of thought that claims this is a good thing and will lead to traffic and some back links. I am curious of what other peoples thoughts are on this, would there be any possible repercussions?

RefControl - Firefox Extension (http://stardrifter.org/refcontrol/)

Steve B
09-10-2008, 06:31 AM
It doesn't sound Kosher to me. But, I don't really understand what it is you're doing.

KristineS
09-10-2008, 08:49 AM
It sounds to me like this would really screw with site stats. If you're tracking where people come from for advertising purposes, you could end up putting your money in the wrong place.

the goat
09-10-2008, 10:07 AM
One of the reasons people do it is so that when webmasters are checking their stats they see it and wonder how you got referred from your site to theirs. They end up clicking on the link and that is a source of traffic.

Apparently some large companies also end up publishing their traffic sources and this can lead to back links for you.

You are leaving your site as a referrer everywhere you go that has tracking.


It sounds to me like this would really screw with site stats

I see what you mean, it would frustrate me if I kept seeing a certain referrer to one of my sites but was unable to find the link. This is why it seems a little shady to me.

cbscreative
09-10-2008, 11:07 AM
It sounds like yet another strategy to cheat, and I think the return would be minimal. I'm a firm believer in the reap what you sow principle. If you sow good, you get good in return, and if you sow bad, well, you know. To me, it's just another form of dishonesty. However trivial, lying is still lying, and although you can be sure someone will rationalize it, I'd call it unethical. If I'm a prude, that's OK, because I am a blessed prude.

the goat
09-10-2008, 01:11 PM
I really don't see any huge advantage to it either, but I don't know that I would go so far as calling it unethical or lying. What is the difference between doing that and using a proxy?

I probably won't do it just because I can't see it actually getting traffic, or maybe it not being kosher in the eyes of google somehow. I really don't think it is a question of ethics though.

Then again I am certainly not a blessed anything.:D

cbscreative
09-10-2008, 07:13 PM
I realize there are shades of gray in many things, but faking your referrer for the purpose of deceiving web stats does equal lying in my view. Maybe it's a white lie, but still a lie. Unethical is for you to judge, but in my experience, bending ethics just a little is a prelude to bending them more. Eventually, ethics become difficult to define. There's that little voice inside all of us that provides a certain amount of instinct. As soon as we rationalize it, the voice gets softer, and can be eventually squelched. That's why children are often better at determining ethics than adults are because we over complicate things. That's what I have to offer on the subject anyway.

the goat
09-10-2008, 07:35 PM
I guess I just don't agree that lying to a website is the same as lying to a person, nor that ethics come into play with inanimate objects. We can agree to disagree though, I totally respect your view.

Harold Mansfield
09-10-2008, 08:29 PM
I just don't trust the site that has the information. It looks like a black hat trick, and there would be no support if something really screwed up.
Appearances may be deceiving, but it does not look reputable.

billbenson
09-10-2008, 08:46 PM
The only reason I can see to do this is if you as the web surfer are doing something illegal. As mentioned same thing as using a proxy. If you are illegally downloading music or on gambling site (which is illegal for US citizens, even if you live in Vegas), you may want to hide your IP. Your IP is almost certainly dynamic anyway, so it changes periodically. You keep the web site from collecting your dynamic IP for their stats. So what?

I suppose a legitimate use as well could be if you want to appear you are somewhere else. Use a Dallas IP for a dating site so the ad pops up and says "find girls in Dallas" instead of where you actually are. Its pretty hard to come up with a legitimate reason to use this though.

cbscreative
09-10-2008, 10:56 PM
I'm perfectly OK with agreeing to disagree, goat, I was simply expressing a perspective. I think we do agree that there is little if anything to gain by the plugin you asked about.

orion_joel
09-11-2008, 12:12 AM
I really think there is little to gain, just imagine how many times you would have to visit some sites for your referrer link to even get close enough to the top of the list to be noticed. Even for a site with 1000 visitors a month there could be hundreds of different referrer links and who would want to go looking through them all.

vangogh
09-11-2008, 01:09 AM
People send me referrer spam all the time. That's actually what it's called. I don't ever click from my stats and if I'm curious I just copy paste the URL. I'd rather the person on the other end not see the click from my side.

It is done because some companies stats are open to the public due to misconfiguring the stats program.

Referrer spam is mostly just annoying. I imagine if gives some people some low quality clicks. It shouldn't be too difficult for a search engine to realize where the link is coming from and not give it much or any weight.